Lasagne alla Bolognese – The real thing

After trying this recipe you will throw that frozen “lasagna” you’ve got from the grocery store in the garbage.

Lasagne or Lasanga? Both spellings are correct. In Italian lasagna is singular (one single sheet of pasta cut in a rectangular shape) whereas lasagne is plural (two or more of those sheets). The American English spelling is lasagna and the British English spelling is lasagne. As I usually stick to original Italian recipes, I prefer to spell lasagne.

Choosing the right pasta for the right sauce

To make lasgane is actually not that complicate. You can either start from store-bought dry pasta or from a home-made pasta (my recipe for home-made pasta you can find here. If your choice is for a store-bought dry pasta, my favorite Italian brands are, in sequence of preference, Garofalo, De Cecco and Barilla. Either home-made or dry, there are two classic pastas: traditional yellow or spinach green. Classic bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese) usually calls for yellow. Green pasta pairs better with béchamel (besciamella in Italian or white sauce in English) and ham. Reality is there is no fixed ruled and, several times in Italy I have tried awesome green lasgane with bolognese sauce. The number of layers, on the other hand, is very important. A classic lasagne has 5 layers. Each layer is composed by lasagne sheets, sauces and cheese.

Lasagne alla Bolognese / Home-made fresh pasta

Pre-heat the oven 400 Fahrenheit / 200 Celsius. Cook 550g of lasagne sheets, a few at a time, in plenty of boiling salted water for about 1 minute. Drain and rinse the sheets in ice-cold water. Drain one more time and arrange them on a clean tea towel. Evenly spread 2 tbsp of ragù on the bottom of a 11 x 7 x 2 inches baking dish. Top the ragù with a layer of lasagne. You may need to trim some of the sheets to cover the ragù. On top of the lasagne sheets add ragù, besciamella, and grated parmiggiano-reggiano cheese to complete the first layer. Add 4 more layers. There is no rule for the quantity or proportion of ragù, besciamella, and grated parmiggiano-reggiano on each layer. Bake in the pre-heated oven until the top is brown and bubbly (approximately 20 minutes). Remove from the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes and serve.

Lasagne alla Bolognese / Store-bought dry pasta

Pre-heat the oven 400 Fahrenheit / 200 Celsius. Once you have decided for the brand of dry pasta, cook 350g of lasagne sheets, a few at a time, in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente (firm to the bite. Drain and rinse the sheets in ice-cold water. Drain one more time and arrange them on a clean tea towel. Evenly spread 2 tbsp of ragù on the bottom of a 11 x 7 x 2 inches baking dish. Top the ragù with a layer of lasagne. You may need to trim some of the sheets to cover the ragù. On top of the lasagne sheets add ragù, besciamella, and grated parmiggiano-reggiano cheese to complete the first layer. Add 4 more layers. There is no rule for the quantity or proportion of ragù, besciamella, and grated parmiggiano-reggiano on each layer. Bake in the pre-heated oven until the top is brown and bubbly (approximately 15 minutes). Remove from the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes and serve.